


Bye Bye Love

by havisham



Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M, Sibling Incest, Vampire Hunters, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-10 16:42:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13505574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/pseuds/havisham
Summary: Sefton is a vampire hunter with a big secret. His brother? A vampire.





	Bye Bye Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chicago_ruth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicago_ruth/gifts).



It had been three years since Sefton had seen his brother, but he could still recognize Royce’s handwriting as if it were his own. It was a rather childish scrawl, scribbled on the back of an envelope, instructing him to come to this particular address in a particular city in the dead of night. _Bring no one with you_ , Royce wrote, _and bring no weapons. I want to see my little brother again -- with no distractions._

Sefton, of course, ignored both instructions. He always carried his weapons with him. And though Marcus was still in training and Sefton wasn’t quite sure he was quite cut out for this line of work, he came as well. Marcus’ story was like every other -- one day his ordinary life had been shattered when a vampire attacked and killed his fiancé, and after that time, he’d sworn to avenge him. Blah blah. Sefton wondered what it was like to choose this life. He’d been born into a vampire-hunting family, had had no choice about it. He fought them because -- well, he had no other marketable skills.

“Stay in the carriage,” he told Marcus before getting out of it. “If anyone with fangs approaches you, shoot them.”

“... I’ve never shot anyone,” Marcus said, peeking out of the carriage window. He cautiously poked the firearm Sefton had given him earlier, as if he expected it to explode. Once again Sefton was struck by how terrible an idea it was to bring him here. 

“It wouldn’t kill them, just wound them a bit,” Sefton said. “Yell for me when you do it. Anyway, I told Isidore you weren’t ready, but here we are.” 

Isidore’s finances had never recovered from the crash of ‘99, and as such he took every opportunity to pump more money into the cash-strapped enterprises of Sefton & Isidore: Vampire Hunters. Of course, they got to keep all the assets from the vampires they killed, but most vampires had nothing to their name except a great deal of blood, which fetched next to nothing in the marketplace. 

So instead, they took in nobles like Marcus for rudimentary vampire hunting lessons in exchange for several bags of gold. Usually it wasn’t much of a challenge, but usually Royce wasn’t involved. Sefton had many misgivings about the whole thing, but Isidore hadn’t cared and Marcus hadn’t let slip the thing about the dead fiancé until after they had left headquarters. 

Even now, along with the gun, Marcus clutched at a golden locket to his chest. With his pale, fat face and oddly pinkish eyes, he looked more like a giant white rabbit than anything else. “Stephen must be avenged!” 

Sefton rolled his eyes and slapped at the side of the carriage. “Whatever, I’ll be back soon.” 

“A-as you say, Mr. Sefton! I’ll be waiting.” 

Royce always liked to choose the darkest and strangest corners of whatever city he was currently infesting for their little meetings and tonight was no exception. The address turned out to be a ramshackle mansion in a formerly fashionable neighborhood. Hex-marks covered the gate posts and poison ivy gilded walls. Broken windows gave the whole house a sort of blinded look. 

When Sefton came upon the front door, it yawned open, the darkness within seeming to pulse with malevolence. Royce always overdid it. 

His brother was sitting by an empty fireplace, pretending to read a book. He looked up when Sefton approached, putting on a look of pleasure and surprise. “Why hello, Bunny! You’ve got a new set of wrinkles on you.” In the blink of an eye, he had crossed the room and pressed his face against Sefton’s. “I wish you would stop aging -- if you don’t stop, you’ll end up like our father.” 

“You mean dead? Speaking of which, you missed Laura’s funeral the other day,” Sefton said, trying to ignore the way Royce had draped himself around him. Royce made a discontented noise, but didn’t move away. 

“I could hardly help it. It was held during the day, after all.”

“She was your wife.” 

“It was a marriage of convenience. I conveniently died and left her all my money, and then she died and left me nothing.” 

“Your daughter Claire will be disappointed to hear that,” Sefton said with a yawn. Royce smiled softly and stroked his face. 

“You really are tired, aren’t you? Poor Bunny, you really have left yourself go.” 

“Don’t touch me.” 

“I’ve wanted to turn you for _so long_ ,” Royce said with a sigh. “Soon you’ll lose that distinguished older gentleman look and just be old and sad and that would break my heart, you know. What kind of older brother would I be if I didn’t try to save you from the curse of death?” 

“Stop it,” Sefton snapped out. 

“Stop what?” 

“Playing with me.” 

Royce dropped his smarmy smile immediately. He drew himself up and even now, so many years later, Sefton still had to look up to look at his brother, eye to eye. 

“Fine,” Royce said coolly. “Then do what you came here to do. The night won’t last forever, you know.” 

It hadn’t always been like this.

When Royce had first turned, Sefton was sure that he would burn the entire world down to find a cure for this -- terrible -- curse. They had been partners for so long, and then to have lost him to the very thing they had fought so hard against! It had been maddening -- heartbreaking. Together, they had tried to get Royce acclimated to drinking animal blood, to continue their work as always. 

But it hadn’t worked, none of it. Royce needed human blood to survive and what’s more, he usually took enough to kill the victim. He had no regrets about what he was now and no compunction about manipulating Sefton into getting whatever he wanted. It was painful to finally admit that his beloved brother didn’t exist anymore, but Sefton thought in the intervening years he had made a sort of peace with it. 

Except for nights like this. 

“Strip and kneel down,” Royce said, sounding bored and Sefton did it, avoided looking at his brother, his face porcelain-white and his blue eyes like chips of ice. Even now, they looked too much alike, though now Sefton’s black hair was sprinkled with grey. 

Vampires couldn’t be counted as humans, Sefton knew, and this was part of the reason why. To survive as a vampire, one had to leave humanity behind and Royce had done that -- what’s more, he’d done it gladly. 

That was what had hurt the most. Royce had laughed when he woken from death, had delighted in his new strength, in his youthful beauty restored. Royce had never considered walking into the sun or willingly getting staked -- not for Sefton’s sake or for his family’s. 

“Open your mouth. Wider.” 

Sefton did what he was told and Royce put his fingers in. There was blood underneath his fingernails and Sefton could taste it, sour and iron on his tongue. 

“Suck,” Royce said and Sefton did, slowly at first and then more strongly. Royce bent down and murmured in Sefton’s ear. “Do you want me to fuck you, little brother? Is that why you came here?” 

“Yes,” Sefton said, because there had never been any reason for him to lie, not to Royce. Not even now.

“It doesn’t seem like you do,” Royce said musingly. There was devilish amusement in his gaze. “Prove it to me. Lick my boots and then my cock.” 

“You want street shit on your cock?”

“Sefton,” Royce said calmly. “I’m going to murder you.” 

“Who’s going to lick your cock then?” 

Royce pushed his fingers back into Sefton’s mouth, making it impossible to speak. 

*

Sefton had always known his relationship with his brother was unusual, although it wasn't until Royce had been turned that he began to see how unusual, how -- unequal the affection between them could be. He loved Royce, almost desperately, had accepted from him all manners of things -- his marriage on a whim to a noble like Laura, done for mercenary purposes, _he_ said, and then the vampirism too. 

It wasn't like that with Royce. If he saw something about Sefton he didn't like, he would set out to change it. Quite often enough, he'd succeed. Right now, with more soft words and light kisses, he'd coaxed Sefton upstairs and into master bedroom. The gigantic four poster bed that dominated the room would rain down a cloud of dust whenever anyone would move in it, and that was where Sefton found himself, pressed up close to Royce, who was drinking blood from him. 

“Let me turn you,” Royce said, wiping his mouth with Sefton’s shirt. 

“No.” 

“Can't you see that I have more control over my powers? I hardly kill anyone accidentally now, Bunny. You can still be a vampire and live ethically.” 

“That's a contradiction in terms. You still attack people and take their blood. You're a parasite, in essence.” 

“So harsh! I don't need to attack anyone -- my followers give me their blood quite willingly.” 

“With the expectation that you'll turn them someday. Forget it, I have no wish to be your thrall.” 

“You say that, but you're still here with me now. Quite enthralled, I would say.” Royce took another, longer sip of Sefton’s blood. It wasn't painful, having Royce drink from him, but the longer he did it, the harder it was to remember why it was important to get him to stop. 

Even Royce seemed to be getting carried away. His eyes began to glow red and he shot Sefton a fangy smile. “I always forget how _good_ your blood tastes, Bunny. Others just can't compare. It's true that if I turned turned you, I wouldn't have this anymore. It would be a pity…” 

“If you’re going to fuck me, do it,” Sefton said, shifting uncomfortably. Royce was so damn boney -- he always had been, even when he was alive -- that it was annoying to lay under him for too long. 

“As if you’re not choking for it,” Royce muttered, his voice fond. 

“You know I am,” Sefton said. “I wouldn’t be here, otherwise.” 

“No,” Royce agreed. “You are so very loyal, Sefton. And loving. I can’t imagine a world without you.” He placed a hand on Sefton’s neck and squeezed gently. “Which is why I should…” 

“If you did,” Sefton said, eyeing the bottom of the bed’s canopy suspiciously. It looked like it could fall and smother them at any moment. Was something moving up there? “I would never stop hunting you.” 

“You’re trying to dissuade me, right?” Royce said, and pushed into him. His brother rarely bothered with preliminaries, assuming (correctly) that Sefton would take care of that beforehand. It was always humiliating how thoroughly Royce could ruin him -- with one crooked finger, Sefton would come running. None of his other relationships had lasted, had never seemed as permanent as this one. 

It wouldn’t be so bad if Royce was -- if Royce felt the same way.

“Stupid to feel self pity now,” Royce muttered in his ear after a particularly hard thrust. Sefton gasped, his mind blessedly blank. He reached out for -- something, anything, to hold onto and not lose his mind.

“Royce, I --”

It was then a bullet whizzed sharply overhead and hit the bottom of the canopy with a near deafening bang. A thick layer of dust fell on them both and Sefton began to cough. Royce gave an annoyed shout and let up, Sefton following behind him. 

Marcus, his gun still smoking, stood at the door of the bedroom, his eyes round and terrified. “I-I’m very sorry, but you told me to shoot a vampire and he --” 

Sefton was intensely glad for the fact that Marcus was apparently a terrible shot, it probably saved his life. Royce was looking at him, hands on his hips and still naked. “One of your tourists, Sefton?” 

“Shut up,” Sefton said, scrambling to get dress. To Marcus, he said, “I told you to stay in the carriage.” 

“I've been waiting for three hours! ... Wait, have I seen you before?” Marcus said, staring at Royce. 

Royce cocked his head, as if trying to place him. “I don't think so. Who do you think I am?” 

“The vampire bastard that killed my fiancé, Stephen Manners.” 

“Oh? _Has_ Stephen died? A pity, but these young vampires … they’ve got to staying power, you know.” 

“Are you saying Stephen is a vampire?” Marcus whispered. Sefton grabbed his arm and began to haul him away.

“Wait, I need to talk to him --” 

“Not to burst your bubble, but my b -- Royce is the last person you need to speak to you.” 

“I'll see you next month, Sefton,” Royce called out to him as Sefton hauled the protesting Marcus away from the door and down the wall. He could hear Royce’s laughter following them out the door and down the shadowy passages of the house. 

Marcus waited until they had reached the carriage before he burst out -- Sefton was impressed by his restraint, thought he would never admit it. 

“S-so, Mr. Sefton! You and that -- vampire, of course, I can’t judge, now that I know Stephen is … one of them, but does Mr. Isidore know?” 

“He doesn’t,” Sefton said, “and if you feel like telling him…” 

“I don’t!” Marcus looked nervously around before he said, “but you could help me find Stephen, I would be grateful.” 

“Blackmailed by a stripling like you, I should die from shame,” Sefton said. “But all right. I’ll help.” 

Marcus beamed and thanked him happily. 

And that was that -- for now. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my betas!


End file.
